Obamateurism of the Day

posted at 8:01 am on October 26, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

One of the first things an attorney is supposed to learn is to never ask a question without first knowing the answer. One of the first things a politician is supposed to learn — at least since Gary Hart talked himself out of a presidential nomination in 1984 — is to only challenge the press to dig up something when you’re sure it doesn’t exist. Barack Obama, both a lawyer and a politician, apparently never learned either lesson, as BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski proved. Obama, while slamming Mitt Romney as a flip-flopper, double-dog-dared the media to find any changed positions in his public positions:

Well, for one thing, Obama signed a petition in 1996 advocating the banning of handguns, which Andrew embedded on his site. Then there’s also his “evolution” on gay marriage since his 2004 declaration that his faith led him to oppose its legalization:

Or how about his flip-flop on marijuana legalization?

Andrew also has Obama on record in 2004 demanding an end to the Cuba embargo and giving at least tacit support for prosecuting businesses that hire illegal immigrants, which is somewhat different than his rhetoric as President. But Andrew saves the best two for last. Here’s Obama blasting George Bush for “hiding” behind the same executive privilege Obama now invokes over Fast & Furious:

And here he is criticizing Hillary Clinton’s support for the same individual insurance mandate that he made a central piece of ObamaCare:

Let’s add in one of our own, too:

Heck … maybe he was just BS-ing.

Got an Obamateurism of the Day? If you see a foul-up by Barack Obama, e-mail it to me at [email protected] with the quote and the link to the Obamateurism. I’ll post the best Obamateurisms on a daily basis, depending on how many I receive. Include a link to your blog, and I’ll give some link love as well. And unlike Slate, I promise to end the feature when Barack Obama leaves office.

Illustrations by Chris Muir of Day by Day. Be sure to read the adventures of Sam, Zed, Damon, and Jan every day!

Breaking on Hot Air

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

Not to forget his recent flippity-floppity-flip on sequester, less than 24 hours from “I won’t let it happen” in the debates to “with the sequester in place, we’ll be able to reduce the deficit” in the Des Moines Register.

As for breaking news (somewhat late…), new media has a chance to scorch Obama in Michigan, Illinios and Ohio as GM prepares to send jobs to China:

Mike Manley, chief operating officer of Fiat and Chrysler in Asia and president of the Jeep brand, told Bloomberg, “We’re reviewing the opportunities within existing capacity” as well as “should we be localizing the entire Jeep portfolio or some of the Jeep portfolio” to China.

Chrysler builds Jeep SUV models at plants in Michigan, Illinois and Ohio. Manley said the firm is in talks with China’s Guangzhou Automobile Group Co.

GDP reported to grow at 2%, higher than the expected 1.8%, and higher than the 1.3% last reported. This will be the last GDP growth data before the election. Most people will probably not be affected by that number, as it routinely got revised down, and most people have made up their mind. One more economic data prior to the election, the job number.

Ed, I dislike the new Green Room format. If you guys want to create something similar to The Corner over at National Review that’s great, but don’t disable commenting. Personally I don’t come here because I want to silently wrap myself in your writing. While I think all of the bloggers at HA do an excellent job (most of the time), being able to comment is what makes this place great. I can go anywhere to read people’s pontifications without talking back at them.

I personally won’t read the Green Room until commenting is allowed. I am just one person, and maybe the new format will be a roaring success, but it isn’t something I will enjoy. Thank you.

One of the first things a politician is supposed to learn — at least since Gary Hart talked himself out of a presidential nomination in 1984 — is to only challenge the press to dig up something when you’re sure it doesn’t exist. Barack Obama, both a lawyer and a politician, apparently never learned either lesson

….the difference between then and now…is that JugEars knows the MSM will not report on him as they did Gary Hart…they give him lesson’s to lie!

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy expanded at a slightly faster 2 percent annual rate from July through September, buoyed by an uptick in consumer spending and a burst of government spending.

The Commerce Department says growth improved from the 1.3 percent rate in the April-June quarter.

The pickup in growth may help President Barack Obama’s message that the economy is improving. Still, growth remains too weak to rapidly boost hiring. And the 1.74 percent rate for 2012 trails last year’s 1.8 percent growth, a point GOP nominee Mitt Romney will emphasize.

The report is the last snapshot of economic growth before Americans choose a president in 11 days.

Growth was held back by the first drop in exports in more than three years and flat business investment in equipment and software.

BO voters, allow me to quote him from 2008: You’ve been hoodwinked and bamboozled. It’s the old okey doke. Heh.

Time to wake up children. You’ve been conned.

Buy Danish on October 26, 2012 at 9:07 AM

It’s interesting reading the comments from 4 years ago..and how spot on the comments were about what kind of POS president Obama would make. Too bad the rest of the country weren’t as smart as those who commented at HotAir.

GDP reported to grow at 2%, higher than the expected 1.8%, and higher than the 1.3% last reported. This will be the last GDP growth data before the election. Most people will probably not be affected by that number, as it routinely got revised down, and most people have made up their mind. One more economic data prior to the election, the job number.

bayview on October 26, 2012 at 8:42 AM

GDP for only Q3 of 2012 reached a preliminarily reported 2%. The YTD GDP movement is 1.77%, an anemic 49% of the most recent, most dour projection from the White House. In 2009, they projected 4.6% for 2012. In 2010, they projected 4.3% for 2012. Last year the White House sunk their projection for 2012 all the way down to 3.6%, and they are still wrong by half. The funny part is, these numbers could have been guessed very closely by someone on the street if they were given just a few raw details, while this administration, with all of the data acquisition resources at their disposal, simply projects lies hoping they don’t come home to roost.

GDP movement hasn’t been anywhere near the White House projection in fourteen consecutive quarters, even when the projection occurred within four months prior to the quarter for which they were forecasting. I’d be on the carpet for a miss of more than 5% on a forecast of revenue, cost, margin, or reclaim for a quarter. For a miss of 50%, I’d be unemployed.

And still, the fifth-column treasonous media is reporting only that there is upward growth in GDP. Not that it is well behind what is required to prevent economic collapse; not that it is far below the White House’s leanest forecast; not that every single number is actually bad news.

No, they only report that while the year-to-date GDP growth is nearly 1.8%, last quarter is initially showing a 2% growth, AN UPWARD TREND, and the only measure by which we should determine that Obama’s policies are finally kicking in and everything is going to be fine, if only we give him another four years.